Mythic BabylonIn the year 1765 BC, King Zimri Lim of Mari emerged from a planning session with his aides and summoned his personal scribe. As he paced the courtyard in his palace in the city of Tuttul, he dictated a letter to the scribe, who used the cut end of a reed to press the message into a warm clay tablet. That letter, which was to be sent within the hour by speedy messenger, said: "To my wife, _ibtu, thus says Zimri Lim: Ask the oracles in Mari questions